Arrows whizzed through the humid Pennsylvania air at Camp Cranium in rural Columbia County last June, striking targets with loud thuds. Campers and counselors cheered as the projectiles hit their marks. Drew Meyer, the operations director, watched from the sidelines behind dark sunglasses. A few tears escaped his eyes.
“They will surprise you, like, flat out,” Meyer said of the campers, who have all survived brain injuries. “They’ll come out here, and they’ll shoot for three hours and start hitting the target.”
The campers range in age from 10 to 21. They have been attending Camp Cranium since 2008. Some of their injuries are so severe that they must relearn basic tasks, from speaking clearly to tying shoelaces. Others use wheelchairs or crutches. Yet during a single week at the facility, they climb rock walls, swim in the lake, and zip line through the lush forest.
The existence of Camp Cranium and similar programs is a direct response to a decades-long national trend. More people, including children, now survive crises resulting in brain injury than did in the 1980s. Improvements in survival rates are largely linked to seat belt laws and federal investments in trauma centers capable of treating injuries quickly.
Despite this progress, efforts to track and prevent one type of brain injury, traumatic ones, are in flux. Congress did not renew a law designed to further research and prevention of traumatic brain injuries, known as TBIs. Additionally, the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the specific team tracking these injuries.
“Brain injury can happen to anybody,” said Rebeccah Wolfkiel, executive director of the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators. “This community deserves more.”
In a shady clearing, Lucas Hardy, 14, climbed a 30-foot rock wall. A hoist helped support his moves, pulling him partially out of his wheelchair. Hardy suffered a traumatic brain injury at age three when a tree branch fell on him.
Annually, an estimated 2.8 million Americans experience a TBI, including about 475,000 children, according to the Brain Injury Association of America. However, recent data suggests these are undercounts. A 2018 CDC team piloted a household survey asking about TBIs in a sample of U.S. children and adults. The results informed a study concluding that such injuries, often considered “hidden” because the damage is internal and unseen, are more widespread than hospitalization numbers suggest.
The mass firings at the CDC in early 2025 gutted the team studying TBI. This happened right before they were expected to launch a nationwide concussion surveillance system. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, Emily Hilliard, did not respond to questions about the number of employees terminated, or if they were reinstated or replaced.
In a statement, Hilliard said: “The Trump Administration remains committed to supporting efforts to prevent traumatic brain injuries, improve surveillance, and ensure Americans have access to practical, evidence-based information that can help protect their health and safety.”
She stated the agency’s TBI work is now handled by other staff members at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Hilliard added that the CDC is deciding how to establish a cost-effective national concussion surveillance system within the bounds of current funding. She noted the agency allocated funds in 2026 to support an educational campaign about concussions, an injury prevention program, and concussion surveillance.
Rick Willis, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America, pointed out the disparity in appropriations. Congress did appropriate $8.25 million for TBI program activities through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026. That is far less than the $23 million Congress provided for each fiscal year from 2020 through 2024, the last time the act was reauthorized.
“The TBI Act is the only piece of federal funding for traumatic brain injury at the federal level,” Willis said. “We’re aiming to preserve what we have.”
The reliance on private donations to maintain these programs in the face of shrinking federal grants exposes a significant vulnerability in the national safety net for disabled citizens. While the immediate joy of a summer week at camp is tangible, the withdrawal of full data tracking and sustained research funding means families may face longer gaps in specialized care once the summer ends. This erosion of public infrastructure forces individuals to handle complex healthcare systems with fewer resources and less reliable information.
Tony Sadowski, the camp’s executive director, remembers when his son Bryan suffered a brain bleed that caused a hemorrhagic stroke at age six. “You’re in the emergency room,” he recalled, “not knowing what version of your son’s going to wake up.”
Now 18, Bryan has attended the camp for years. “We’re very lucky to be able to be here,” the elder Sadowski said.
In 1996, before Bryan was born, Congress passed the Traumatic Brain Injury Act, which has provided states with grants for research, advocacy, and services. Congress reauthorized the act four times with bipartisan support until 2024. It has remained lapsed since then.
Despite the lapse in funding, money is still flowing to TBI programs at the CDC and in states. The funding uncertainty has not affected the handful of brain injury camps, including Camp Cranium and Bright Ideas TBI Camp in Alabama, because they are nonprofits.
Back at the camp, bursts of laughter punctuated the humid summer air. While others did archery or art, Brianna Engleman moved between groups. She collected song requests for a dance that evening. When she was 5, doctors performed a hemispherectomy to relieve her of debilitating seizures. The surgery itself can injure other parts of the brain.
Engleman lives in Northern Virginia and first attended Camp Cranium as a teen in 2018. It was her first time being around so many people like her. She said she has gotten more confident during her time there.
“I’ve gotten more confident,” Engleman said. “It made me think, well, there’s actually good people out there.”
Next time she returns, she plans to do so as a counselor.
Related: Rising IVF Costs Send Americans Abroad for Treatment
